CSJ Blue Communities Updates

November 28, 2019

These past few weeks, our Blue Communities Coordinator Paul Baines has been following water issues in the news while also participating in a grassroots review of Ontario's bottled water permit policy. 

Wellington Water Watchers

A network of water groups have been trying to limit Nestlé's access to groundwater for years. Led by groups such as the Wellington Water Watchers, this network (which our Blue Community project is a member of) has been raising awareness about the impacts of the bottled water business and asking for a science, ethics, and rights-based approach for sustainable and just water policy. 

There is a 4-page information sheet regarding this subject available on the CSJ Blue Communities website. These past two weeks have seen major shifts in bottled water policy.

10,000 Signatures

Two weeks ago, water protectors were asking for public support to extend the current moratorium on new bottled water permits. One week ago, we found out that the ban would be lifted at the end of 2019 allowing for growth in the industry including a third well for Nestlé near Elora Ontario.

The pressure was on to let Jeff Yurek (our Minister of Environment, Conservation, and Parks) know that there are far too many unresolved issues to grant new permits. The moratorium was needed to address water flow science, plastic pollution, the rights, consent, and jurisdiction of Indigenous nations, as well as a groundswell of public opposition.

None of these issues have been addressed since the ban started two years ago. Then, just days ago, the Ontario provincial government announced it would add another nine months onto the ban.

What happened during these two weeks?   Environmental Defence launched a petition that gathered 10,000 signatures. The Council of Canadians also launched a petition that gathered 10,000 signatures!

Save Our Water in Elora launched a letter writing campaign and Wellington Water Watchers held four high profile public events (called All Eyes on Nestlé tour) in four cities and launched a campaign organizing people to phone Minister Yurek (MPP for Elgin-Middlesex-London).

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Canada's Lead Crisis

These past two weeks have also seen an explosion of stories about Canada's lead crisis in tap water. Earlier this week, an investigative report by several media outlets revealed dangerously high levels of lead in tap water across Canada.

This investigation took a combined effort from 120 journalists, working at nine universities and 10 media organizations across the country.

They reported that millions of Canadians are exposed to this neurotoxin through the aging lead pipes that distribute water from municipal water treatment plant to households across 11 cities. Please click here to read a story about this on Canadians.org. The Toronto Star also published a column, How to Solve the Lead Crisis in Canada, which you can read by clicking here.

Inside the Say No to Nestlé Campaign

I work as the Campaign Director for the Wellington Water Watchers. Paul Baines, (CSJ Blue Community Coordinator) invited me to write for this blog to update you on our campaign to Say No To Nestlé’.

The Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto recently made generous financial donations to WWW to support this campaign. WWW is launching the next phase of its campaign to Say No To Nestlé. I will write in this blog once a month to keep you up to date on and invite you to join with our campaign.

Say No To Nestlé is an ongoing campaign to stop Nestlé’s water taking in Wellington County. Nestlé currently has permits which allow it to extract up to 4.7 million litres of water per day in Aberfoyle (where it also operates a bottling plant) and in Hillsburgh. Guelph, which is located nearby, is the largest city in Canada that relies 100% on groundwater for its drinking water.

Nestlé is seeking permission for a third well – Middlebrook – in Elora.

View this 8 minute animation on Nestlé’s water taking in Wellington County and our campaign to Say No To Nestlé’.

Wellington Water Watchers is also campaigning for the Ontario government to end the practice of issuing permits to take water for bottling in communities across Ontario. Currently the Ontario government permits the extraction of more than 4.5 billion litres of water each year by commercial bottling by multiple corporations in Ontario.

WWW expects that any day Nestlé will submit an application to renew their permit for water taking in Aberfoyle and Hillsburgh.

In 2016 the Ontario government of Kathleen Wynne imposed a moratorium on permits to take water for bottling – in response to the campaigning of WWW and many others.

Doug Ford’s government lifted the moratorium on existing applications (although it maintained the moratorium on applications for new wells – like the proposed Middlebrook well in Elora).

When Nestlé submits its application there will be a 90-day consultation period – which is conducted completely online – through the Environmental Bill of Rights process. This online consultation excludes concerned people from direct contact with decision-makers. It is designed to separate politicians from people who are concerned about the environmental consequences, commodification of water, plastic waste, and disregard of Six Nations treaty rights of bottling Ontario’s water. In addition, the criteria set by the government for evaluating permits to take water does not assess the cumulative impact of water taking on underground aquifers.

For all of these reasons Wellington Water Watchers opposes Nestlé’s water taking for bottling.

WWW demands that Doug Ford’s government impose a full Environmental Assessment on the policy of issuing permits to take water so that there can be a full public discussion of water bottling by Nestlé and other commercial water bottling operations in Ontario.

You can tell Premier Doug Ford now you support a full Environmental Assessment by clicking here.

PS - If you would like to sign up for the newsletter of the Wellington Water Watchers you can do that here.